Post
Topic
Board Meta
The Gresham’s Law of account rank and grandfathered merits
by
nullius
on 25/11/2020, 16:32:17 UTC
Transplanted from the Wall Observer:

While BTC is flirting with its ATH, I reached a new ATH forum rank. I'm not much for self-glorifying rank-up threads in the Reputation boards, yet wanted to say sincere thx to everyone who helped me get here. I've had a ball (only one, not two #nohomo) until now, and I'm planning to keep that spirit up. Thx.

So, what's new? Smiley
Congrats for your new achievement for me its really dream as I also join this clube hopefully this will happen even very long way to go but doing good with positive mind.

Thx mate. The shitty thing is, I just realized that now my profile looks as if I'm a pré-Merit member who's never succeeded in getting more than 8 Merits during his entire membership on these boards.

Feels a bit like downgrading as a "big" 12-year-old kid in elementary school back down to suddenly being a junior in high school. Cool

^^^ THIS!!!

I have been complaining about the “grandfathered” merits since February–March 2018.  Now, I look like some idiotic “Legendary” who has earned only 1045 merits.  Roll Eyes  Did theymos learn nothing from monetary policy, Gresham’s Law, etc.?

For my part, I have taken to checking post histories before I award merit to those I’ve never seen before—especially those at the Newbie and Jr. ranks, and those in upper ranks who seem to have earned little or nothing above their “grandfathered” merit.  Not a few times, I have backed away from the merit button after a glance at post history revealed bounty posts or other spammish behaviour.  Also, I have recently developed a policy of never awarding more than +1 per post to a Newbie; since this is unfair, I have a very short list of posts to which I plan to return in a few months and add more merit, if I see evidence that the person still deserves it.

For me, it is especially bad because I registered my account 8 months before I started posting; and I have had a total of 23 months of major gaps in my post history.  I have zero grandfathered meritsall of my merits are earned—and yet, a naïve glance at my registration date would imply that I have at least 250 grandfathered merits, if not (after I reach higher activity) 500 or 1000.

The way the system is built, I am tempted to abandon this account after it reaches “Hero” activity (— because my signature PGP key fingerprint deserves background un-colours! —), and reboot with an alt account.  (If I don’t really retire altogether.)

Youthful accounts with high merit are glamorous.  Highly-ranked accounts don’t look like wise elders, thanks to the inflationary effect of grandfathered merits:  They look like people who have just been shitposting for a very long time.



friends1980, congratulations on the new rank.  Though wouldn’t it be much sweeter if you could dispense with the 100 grandfathered merits, and celebrate self-made Hero bragging rights after you have earned 500 merits?  At the rate that you are now going, it will not take long!

Anyway, a toast with something other than Chianti:

(buy your stock of champagne for the next 3 years people Wink - prices are ridiculously low atm, since meetings and parties are forbidden, therefore there's a huge overstock)

🥂 🍾